The Handbook of aircraft of World War II includes all the aircraft (except Heavy fighters and Jet- and rocket- propelled fighters) used by those countries which were at war during World War II from the period between their joining the conflict and the conflict ending for them.

A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, and small size relative to other combat aircraft.Many fighters have secondary ground-attack capabilities, and some are designed as dual-purpose fighter-bombers (like a P-47 Thunderbolt or Fairey Fox). Often, aircraft that do not fulfill the standard definition are called fighters. This may be for political or national security reasons, for advertising purposes or other reasons.A fighter's main purpose is to establish air superiority over a battlefield. Since World War I, achieving and maintaining air superiority has been essential for victory in conventional warfare. The success or failure of a belligerent's efforts to gain air supremacy hinges on several factors including the skill of its pilots, the tactical soundness of its doctrine for deploying its fighters and the numbers and performance of those fighters. Because of the importance of air superiority, since the dawn of aerial combat armed forces have constantly competed to develop technologically superior fighters and to deploy these fighters in greater numbers, and fielding a viable fighter fleet consumes a substantial proportion of the defense budgets of modern armed forces.

The Second World War featured fighter combat on a larger scale than any other conflict to date. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel noted the effect of airpower: "Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success." Throughout the conflict, fighters performed their conventional role in establishing air superiority through combat with other fighters and through bomber interception, and many fighters were also pressed into service in additional roles such as tactical air support and reconnaissance.

he approach of different belligerents to fighter design varied widely, with the Japanese and Italians favoring lightly armed and armored but highly maneuverable designs such as the Japanese Nakajima Ki-27, Nakajima Ki-43 and Mitsubishi A6M Zero and Italy's Fiat G.50 and Macchi MC.200.